Four Spartans Begin NHL Postseason

East Lansing, Mich. -- Four former Spartan hockey players begin their quest for Lord Stanley's Cup when the NHL postseason begins on Monday evening.

Duncan Keith, in his first season in Edmonton after three Stanley Cup rings with Chicago, hits the ice tonight in game one against the LA Kings. NHL teammates Torey Krug and Mackenzie MacEachern (both metro Detroit products) will also begin on Monday evening as their St. Louis Blues take on the Minnesota Wild, while Rod Brind'Amour is the head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, where he won a Cup as a player and finished first in the Metro division and will take on the Wild Card Boston Bruins.

Edmonton rode a hot finish to the regular season to finish second in the Pacific division, and will play LA. Keith is among the most decorated active players in the NHL, with three Stanley Cup rings (2010, 2013, 2015), a pair of Norris Trophies as the league's top defenseman, and he was the Conn Smythe winner (playoff MVP) in 2015. With more than 1,200 NHL games under his belt, the 17-year NHL veteran is looking to become the first defenseman to win the Stanley Cup four times since Nicklas Lidstrom. In 56 career games at MSU, Keith had six goals and 24 points.

The Blues enter the postseason as the No. 3 finisher in the central division and will take on the Minnesota Wild, which finished one slot ahead in the same division. Krug, completing his second season in St. Louis, appeared in 64 regular-season games for the bluenotes, with nine goals and 43 points. He completed his ninth full-time NHL season and 10th pro season overall after a standout career for the Spartans, where he was a captain and Hobey Baker finalist in 2011-12 as a junior. Overall, he had 26 goals and 83 points over three-seasons, capturing five CCHA post-season awards in his final campaign and earning All-America honors. Krug has played more than 600 NHL games.

MacEachern is in his fourth NHL season and sixth overall as a pro, and has played 115 career games. He split time with the NHL club and the AHL-affliate Springfield Thunderbirds in 2021-22, where he had 12 goals and 13 assists. In 14 NHL games this season, he had a pair of assists. MacEachern played three seasons at Michigan State (2013-16), compiling a 33-35-68 scoring line in 108 career contests.

Rod Brind'Amour, the NHL's reigning Jack Adams Coach of the Year, has guided the Hurricanes to a first-place finish in the Metropolitan division and has been behind the bench in Carolina as an assistant (2011-18) before taking the reigns in the start of the 2018-19 campaign. Brind'Amour was at Michigan State just one season (1988-89), where he had 59 points (27 goals) in 42 games. He went on to a stellar professional career, ranking 16th in NHL history in games played (1,484), 44th in assists (732), 46th in points (1,184) and 54th in goals (452), in 21 seasons with St. Louis, Philadelphia and Carolina.

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